2011. The Martian Chronicles, inspired by Ray Bradbury's story collection ofthe same name, sounds very much like the soundtrack to a mysterious and strangescience fiction film that exists only in the imaginations of Seren Ffordd and O÷phoi.These seven tracks, while slow, moody and at times weirdly alien, also evoke adrama and emotional depth absent from much recent ambient music. It's a complexand beautiful mixture of electronic instruments, field recordings and percussion.

These artists will both likely be familiar to Hypnos listeners. Seren Ffordd has released several albums on our Hypnos Secret Sound imprint, and also contributed to the Hypnos compilation Sounds of a Universe Overheard. The name Seren Ffordd (real name Andy Benford) is Welsh for Star Road, Way of Stars or Milky Way.

O÷phoi himself released Athlit in 2002, Distance to Zero (with Paul Vnuk) in 2006, and his Nebulae group project album Path of White Clouds in 2011, all on Hypnos. Gianluigi Gasparetti, the man behind O÷phoi, first became known for creating the excellent Italian music periodical Deep Listenings. His O÷phoi persona burst onto the ambient music scene in the late 1990s and quickly became one of the most talented and prolific sound artists around. He founded the now-defunct labels Umbra and Penumbra, which released the earliest recordings of Seren Ffordd. After working together in this capacity for several years The Martian Chronicles is their first collaboration, but not their last; the pair has already completed another full album worth of material.

We at Hypnos are proud to bring you this collaborative work from two of the mostinteresting and talented ambient musicians out there, and we hope you'll enjoy it asmuch as we do.

One additional note regarding a special deal on this album. With our last release, we experimented with a special low price for the first week of release, and it was a big success so we'll try it again.

Our regular price will continue to be $12.99 for new Hypnos releases but through this coming weekend, Sunday October 9 this CD will be $8.99, only through the Hypnos store.

If we continue to have success with these special deals, not only will our listeners save almost 1/3 the usual price, but they'll encourage us to continue this discount with future releases.

This release was delayed longer than most, and I have to thank the artists for their patience, as well as those of you who have been anxious to hear it. I think it's a fantastic album, and due to the above-mentioned delays I've had a chance to listen to this album man, many times!

The Martian Chronicles arrived in my mailbox last night and this is an utterly fantastic album. Fans of (as I am) the Oophoi/Tau Ceti masterpiece "Celestial Geometries" from about 10 years ago will definitely be well pleased for this sonic journey back to the red planet. My review to follow soon. The short version: 5 stars out of 5.